Dancer in the Dark (2000)

Recommended

Denmark/Finland/France/Germany/Iceland/Italy/The Netherlands/Norway/Sweden/UK/USA

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Lars von Trier

Cinematographer: Robby Müller

Composer: Björk

Cast: Björk, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare, Cara Seymour, Jean-Marc Barr, Siobhan Fallon

von Trier’s polarising, excellently acted provocation – a bleak tale of maternal martyrdom with brief, Björky musical interludes, in which the aforementioned mother, a Czech immigrant with rapidly deteriorating eyesight, struggles to cope in small town America, as she strives to save enough money for an operation for her precious son – is a powerful, often painful work, but a rewarding one none the less. Iain.Stott

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Guy X (2005)

Cautiously Recommended

UK/Canada/Iceland
Feature Film
Director: Saul Metzstein
Writers: Steve Attridge, John Paul Chapple, John Griesemer
Cinematographer: François Dagenais
Composers: Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Charlie Mole
Cast: Jason Biggs, Natascha McElhone, Jeremy Northam, Michael Ironside, Sean Tucker, Hilmir Snær Gudnason, Harry Standjofski, Rob deLeeuw, Donny Falsetti

Metzstein’s follow-up to the promising Late Night Shopping (2001) - chronicling a young soldier’s attempts to escape his accidental posting to Greenland, to seduce the general’s girlfriend, and to uncover a mysterious conspiracy involving brain-dead Vietnam veterans - is at times a riotously funny film, and during its first half, it meanders pleasantly towards nowhere in particular, but once the plot kicks in, it rapidly becomes rather tedious. Iain.Stott

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The Boss of It All (2006)

Recommended

Denmark/Iceland/Sweden/Norway/Finland/France/Germany/Italy
Feature Film
Original Title: Direktøren for det hele
Writer/Director: Lars von Trier
Cinematographer: Automavision
Cast: Jens Albinus, Peter Gantzler, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Benedikt Erlingsson, Iben Hjejle, Henrik Prip, Mia Lyhne, Casper Christensen, Louise Mieritz, Jean-Marc Barr, Sofie Gråbøl

von Trier’s frequently hilarious workplace comedy – employing the “innovative” Automavision process; a computer programme that randomly resets camera angles and sound levels (the small print in accompanying bumph would suggest that this is more of a publicity stunt than an exercise in capricious film-making) – is a cracking little allegorical farce, examining, amongst other things, the artistic process, office politics, emotional weakness, and the walls separating taste and theory from corporeality and validity. Iain.Stott

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Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (2006)

Cautiously Recommended

France/Iceland
Feature Documentary
Original Title: Zidane, un portrait du 21e siècle
Directors: Douglas Gordon, Philippe Parreno
Cinematographer: Darius Khondji
Composers: Mogwai
Featuring: Zinédine Zidane

The melancholically beautiful images of a stony-faced Zidane, trotting around the pitch, devoid of the context of the game that they belong to, suggest that this film, a documentary following the titular footballer through the course of one game for Real Madrid in 2005, is less about football than it is about the futility of human experience, and on that level it is a depressingly successful if not entirely engaging work. Iain.Stott

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